In the spirit of the long-running ACM programming contest, the
CADathlon challenges students in their CAD knowledge, and their
problem solving, programming, and teamwork skills. It serves as an
innovative initiative to assist in the development of top students in
the EDA field. The contest will provide a platform for SIGDA,
academia, and industry to focus attention on the best and brightest of
next generation CAD professionals.

The students will be given a number of problems that range in
difficulty and topics. Information about the CAD areas, relevant
papers, and potentially a software framework that will run on Linux
will be released one week before the competition. Students will be
allowed to work in teams of two. At the contest, students will be
given the problem statements and an example test data, but they will
not have the judges' test data. Solutions will be judged on
correctness and efficiency. The team that solves the most problems in
the fewest attempts in the least cumulative time is declared the
winner. Incorrect solutions will be penalized. A handsome prize awaits
the winning team. The judges are experts in EDA from both academia and
industry.

During the competition students will be presented with six problems in the following areas:

Circuit Design & Analysis

Physical Design

Logic & High-Level Synthesis

System Design & Analysis

Functional Verification

Timing, Test, and Manufacturing

The competition is open to all graduate students specializing in CAD
currently enrolled full-time in a Ph.D. granting institution in any
country. Partial or full travel grants will be provided for qualifying
students.